


Old Friends

by noblescientist



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, how much can I conflate these timelines, that's actually only five characters, whew Kingdom Hearts name tags are fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 16:47:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7471464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblescientist/pseuds/noblescientist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Squall meets an old friend in Radiant Garden, and has conflicting memories of her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Friends

**Author's Note:**

> A fic about screwed-up memories of screwed-up timelines inspired by stupid things the human brain does in real life.

He knew her. He was sure of it.

But maybe not… this version of her. Squall knew that there was some impossible version of Seifer in a place called Twilight Town. He had talked with Sora about it at length, grilled him about it, if he was honest with himself. That Seifer was a small teen, not much taller than Sora, and lean. Personality sounded right, though, and he had the damn scar. The scar Squall had given him when he was already eighteen, big and muscular and tall. Taller than Squall had become (and he wasn’t sure how that happened, either; he was pretty sure he had stopped growing at 5’9”, at seventeen-- but here he was, 5’11” and so confused about time he didn’t know how to answer questions about how old he was).

But then she stopped, and turned to where he was working on cleaning up part of the street with Cloud and Yuffie and Aeris, and recognition dawned on her face. He knew her-- knew he had-- knew her name and her face and her personality and knew to steel himself for a hug-- but--

\--but--

\--she looked mournful, as if she had lost someone, and wandered over slowly, while Squall pretended not to notice and wracked his mind for a memory of this girl with the dual childhoods, with him and with Sora, with jump ropes and nunchaku, with Creeps and with Heartless. And then she was too close to the rubble, and the others noticed her too, and Cloud went to stop her from getting any closer.

“You might want to stay back,” Squall heard him say. “There’s been live wires under some of this rubble. Do you need something?”

Squall straightened and looked at Selphie, who was staring at him unabashedly, still a little sad.  
“No, I don’t think so,” she answered, glancing at Cloud briefly. “I just… hadn’t seen Leon in a while, and thought it’d be nice to see how he was. That’s all.”

Now he was confused. Neither the Selphie he knew nor the one Sora had grown up with-- however that worked-- had a reason to know he had used the name ‘Leon’. Aeris grinned.

“Well, he’s going by Squall again, since we got Radiant Garden back,” she told the other girl, throwing an elbow at Squall. He grunted on impact-- she had pointy elbows.

“Yeah,” he echoed hollowly, not sure what to trust in the situation. “I’ve uh… been keeping busy, restoration work and all.”  
Selphie smiled gently, and the sadness returned to her face. “You don’t remember me.”

Squall wanted to tell her that no, he didn’t remember much, but he remembered her, her name, her flirty personality and her skill in battle, but he couldn’t find his voice.

“Hey,” Yuffie called, from the other side of the pile, “if you’re friends with Squall, maybe you could lend a hand!”  
Her face brightened. “Sure! I’ll keep an eye out for live wires.”

As he expected, Yuffie and Selphie hit it off right away. Aeris took a quick liking to her, too, after seeing her work a bit and chatting in the downtime. She was strong, of course, and had little trouble keeping up once she got into the swing of things.

By the time they finished, the sun was setting, but Selphie had stuck around through the heat of the afternoon to help out. Aeris was starting to offer to get them all coffee, and Squall could see Selphie was going to politely refuse.

“I have a better idea,” he interrupted. “I know a place nearby with the best ice cream this side of Garden.”  
Selphie stared while Yuffie agreed enthusiastically.  
“I haven’t tried their cookie dough, but I’m told it’s pretty great,” he continued. “I seem to remember that was your favourite.”  
Selphie beamed. “You bet! Did you ever find that caffeinated coffee ice cream again?”  
“Not the same one, no, but this place has a similar one that’s pretty good.”  
“Now that, I might have to try,” Cloud put in. “I’ll buy.”  
“We’ll see,” Aeris teased.


End file.
